nope. I got the ATV through the DirectTV deal, and solely to play the occasional 4K HDR Atmos movie from my plex server. I didn’t do my research. We (wife and I) are perfectly happy with the Odriod C2 and LE for everything else. If I could have one box that does it all (see prior requirements), I would go for it.

Oh joy. Thanks for the info. Seems like I should wait until the next version of the AMLogic Linux Kernel or wait for Apple to add Atmos to the ATV4K.

Any ETA for the new kernel and LE?

No ETA for now, the critical part of SOC for new kernel remain untouched like Video Decoders and DVB TS Input , you can check the mainlining progress for Amlogic Meson SoCs hear Meson SoCs. I hope things get done before S9XX become obsolete, because new amlogic socs on the horizon.

one more thing

Various forks of Kodi are available for different platforms,
For apple's tvOS you
can use this fork of kodi MrMC, also there is an effort to
brings Kodi v18 Leia to apple's tvOS and sooner or
later this will happen. My advice is, stick to your odroid C2
and ATV until new kernel available for s9XX or something come up with HDMI 2.1.

I'm using a 8.2.3.1 LibreELEC build for S905 on my cheap s905x TV box (MXQ Pro+ 2/16GB). Everything (video/sound playback of various formats) seems to be flawless so far, but the "Render methods" options in the video settings is greyed out and set to "Auto detect". Is this a normal behavior among the custom LibreELEC builds for S9XXs boxes or not? I am asking because I've noticed the HEVC hw decoding on my box seems to smooth the tiny details out as if some denoise/sharpening filters were applied (as opposed to the sw decoding on my PC). It's rather non-invasive, but still. Is this of a common occurence or not?

I was all ready to pull the trigger on a s912 based device but saw wrxtasy
comment down the bottom. I don't intend to use the device for netflix but have plenty of h264 720 and 1080p content. Based upon the sticky I thought this would play OK.

C2 = best HDMI CEC control of all the AML Boxes, still no guarantee it works properly with all TV's / AVR's simply due to manufacturers stuffing about with their own custom CEC tweaks. Honestly you are better off using a Wireless remote anyway for Kodi responsiveness like the MINIX A2 lite remote or the aftermarket Xiaomi Mi Box remote.

C2 can also be Overclocked safely due to it's nice big heatsink, you can Overclock the CPU, GPU and also the RAM speed. Fastest device in the non HDR AML arsenal when used with eMMC storage and a wireless remote.

If you want a Wireless remote that can also turn the box OFF / ON using Infra Red buy the MINIX U1. Infra Red has to be used for OFF / ON. It's IR signal is hard coded into the devices boot loader.

Personally I would just leave these devices on 24/7. They use stuff all power anyway and have good thermal heat disappapation.

The other option which I use is power the ODROID C2 from a USB > barrel connector power cord, plug that into the TV's USB2/3 port. C2 boots up into LE from eMMC in 9 seconds when TV power is turned on. Not to be used this way if Hard drives are connected to C2. Even WiFi will struggle due simply to WiFi power draw requirements.

Use a CSR 4.0 Bluetooth USB dongle, a Xiaomi Wireless minimal remote, Overclock and you end up with a snappy setup.

I was all ready to pull the trigger on a s912 based device but saw wrxtasy
comment down the bottom. I don't intend to use the device for netflix but have plenty of h264 720 and 1080p content. Based upon the sticky I thought this would play OK.

From below this appears to not be the case?

Thanks!

you are wrong, wrxtasy
comment is about Netflix adaptive streaming, if I'm not mistaken (correct me if i'm wrong) there is no hardware acceleration for netflix adaptive streaming available in LE/kodi/addons for now, your h264/265 720/1080/4k content play fine without any problem in s912 based device.

there is no hardware acceleration for netflix adaptive streaming available in LE/kodi/addons for now, your h264/265 720/1080/4k content play fine without any problem in s912 based device.

I do question myself the same as in the few prev. questions but those quotes are not clear. So is the problem on s912 just with (netflix) streaming?

Other questions: Are TX92/ U9 the only options, wouldn't any s912 (with GbE) do (except some quality aspects)?

And if someone is able to answer: let's say I would want to run Armbian, Android and Kodi, what's the best solution? Simply multiboot? Vm or docker like anbox? Would LE still be the better solution or use Kodi with intended Linux (are there maybe better drivers available)?

LE on the S912 uses what I will call hybrid Android/Linux GPU drivers. This is what draws the Kodi graphic user interface and all those overlays you see on top of video during playback.

There are NO optimised Linux GPU video drivers for the S912 available at all, no matter what the Linux OS used.

It's my understanding kszaq
has "robbed" CPU processing cycles to get this hybrid GPU driver to draw the Kodi graphic user interface smoothly without user interface picture tearing that was seen in early versions of LE on S912's.

LE Kodi Leia when streaming ANY copy protected video content like Netflix has to CPU Software decode those h.264 video streams. Max. 720p at the moment because ffmpeg CPU Software decoding and playback is not yet optimised on any AMLogic LibreELEC platforms.

All Hardware decoded video playback is unaffected by LE on the S912 when using Hybrid GPU video drivers. A co-processor called the VPU handles hardware video decoding.

CPU Software decoded video playback is affected. There really is not much of that on S9xx platforms unless you are using the as previously mentioned Kodi Leia Netflix addon.

The only Gigabit Ethernet DIY S912 option I know of that can dual boot to run LibreELEC and an unofficial Android TV ROM that will give you 1080p Netflix is the MINIX U9. DD+ 5.1 Audio from Netflix on the U9 is a mess.

For 1080p copy protected video playback, like Netflix when using Android you need a box with Widevine L1 DRM and HDCP 1.x

In the end it's a lot easier just buying something like a Plug N Play - Apple TV 4K that has really nice tvOS Firmware Apps support features for auto frame rate and auto dynamic range matching for smooth video playback with the correct SDR and 4K HDR colorspace outputs. Such Firmware Apps support is better than anything Android is offering. Impressive powerful hardware too.

Then use a complimentary - AMLogic S9xx box for LibreELEC Kodi Krypton with all the trimmings.

Ah, may I should have mentioned, that I wouldn't make use of Netflix (and Android for that). Or other streaming, generally not a fan of, more the guy having those in the hands and trying to keep things simple/long supported. Legal Blu Ray playback is unaffected by this, right? I also won't make use of HDR for now (but it may should be able to at least SDR fallback play it, though my tv is 10bit, but no official HDR Support, still it looks better than SDR so ... at least no DV required yet). 3D would be nice though, but AFAIK that's not working yet. Considering all that s912 sounds the way to go!? If so, may there is just the open question on dual boot. Are there any devices known to not allow it at all (I wouldn't mind if it's easy or not)?